People still buy newspapers?
No, largely the don't. Pity the poor sod I flogged the business to, it's dying a death now. Newspaper and ciggie sales were heading south quickly and the time was right to head for the door. Though believe it or not that wee shop was the source of most of my trade cars. People knew I'd been a salesman for years before buying it so they'd often ask my advice on cars and soon I was viewing motors and negotiating deals on their behalf while buying their old trade ins the dealers were offering peanuts on. Word of mouth built it up to a profitable sideline to the business. Unlike 90% of home traders however I did things by the book. Many enjoyable days had doing both even if it left little spare time for myself.
Reminds me of a fellow who had a barber shop down the road from our house in the 1960s: as a sideline he bought and sold things like bicycles, radios, cricket bats, airguns, you name it he'd buy and sell them. He was known to stop half way through cutting someone's hair to ride a bike round the block to assess how much to offer to buy it.
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